the strategy predated the western influx of culture or influence.
Al-Hassan, leader of the hassashin, was the person who formally instituted assassanation, and the use of personally carried explosives was sometimes employed.
In fact it was Al-Hassan Sabah who provided the framework for the CIA textbook on assassination.
http://www.iranian.com/History/Aug97/Sabbah/this is, IMHO, the best operative definition for "terroristic" activity, which is an Assassination which requires or involves publicity.
http://www.iranian.com/History/Aug97/Sabbah/Look at the follwing subsection.
QUOTE
7. Explosives
Bombs and demolition charges of various sorts have been used frequently in assassination. Such devices, in terroristic and open assassination, can provide safety and overcome guard barriers, but it is curious that bombs have often been the imp lement of lost assassinations.
The major factor which affects reliability is the use of explosives for assassination. the charge must be very large and the detonation must be controlled exactly as to time by the assassin who can observe the subject. A small or moderate explosi ve charge is highly unreliable as a cause of death, and time delay or booby-trap devices are extremely prone to kill the wrong man. In addition to the moral aspects of indiscriminate killing, the death of casual bystanders can often produce public reacti ons unfavorable to the cause for which the assassination is carried out.
Bombs or grenades should never be thrown at a subject. While this will always cause a commotion and may even result in the subject's death, it is sloppy, unreliable, and bad propaganda.
Ten pounds of high explosive should normally be regarded as a minimum, and this is explosive of fragmentation material. The latter can consist of any hard, [illeg] material as long as the fragments are large enough. Metal or rock fragments should be walnut-size rather than pen-size. If solid plates are used, to be ruptured by the explosion, cast iron, 1" thick, gives excellent fragmentation. Military or commercial high explosives are practical for use in assassination. Homemade or improvised e xplosives should be avoided. While possibly powerful, they tend to be dangerous and unreliable. Anti-personnel explosive missiles are excellent, provided the assassin has sufficient technical knowledge to fuse them properly.
I guarantee you the most political influence motivating a shahid is personal, and parroted from a influencial leader, and never subject to criticism or veracity.
it would take a Westerner to ask "what would the political motivations be, of this man who is willing to swallow stones to keep his stomach from shirinking to the point of death, while he uses opium to achieve a bloodthirsty hunger to destroy all who oppose his sense of reality?"
